In the play of “Taming of the Shrew” and a modern romantic comedy movie "Hitch," they both portrays control and power from a male and female perspective, causing a physical and mental change in the other person of a relationship. In the play, Kate is a more complex and harsh person than Petruchio. This is when power and demand comes into play from a male perspective. Petruchio “tames” her to become a better person than before, so they can be compatible with each other, relating to Hitch and Sara, only Sara is the controller in this relationship.
Viewing control and power in a female’s perspective in the movie “Hitch,” Sara, a magazine gossiper, dates a dating professional named Hitch, in which she never knew he was a dating expert in wooing women, until her best friend has been with one of Hitch’s clients and been through a one-night stand. This showing that Hitch and Kate have to make a change for their relationship to work. Petruchio and Sara are the controllers of the relationships. In the play and the movie, it shows that sacrifice has to be done because of the change. Kate and Hitch have to put out their old lifestyles for the better. Never-ending relationships only work well when there is control over another person so that one can change to become compatible with each other regardless of gender, as portrayed by Petruchio and Sara as the controller of the relationship.
“I swear I’ll cuff you if you strike again.”
(Act II, Scene i, 234)
In this quote of Petruchio, he neglects everything towards Kate, his wife, to get the best out of her, when taming her. The usage of threat towards her is his method of choice to get her to become a better person, ignoring all her feelings. He’s trying to break the negative boundary that Kate is having. The reason is that because Petruchio is in control of the relationship.
Similar to Petruchio taming Kate, Sara uses a more harsh tactic of exposing Hitch as the date doctor to the community to tame him.
Hitch 1
In this startling scene, Sara is talking angrily to her boss on planning on publishing the recordings of Hitch teaching one of Sara’s co-workers on how to woo women, which was Sara’s plan to find out if Hitch is a date doctor or not. Sara speaks angrily to her boss “Well, he’s going to have to hide behind a lot more than that once this hit the fan.” Her plan is to ask one of her male co-workers, without Hitch’s knowledge, to ask Hitch for dating advice and the co-worker records the evidences of Hitch teaching him on how to woo women. Sara doesn’t want Hitch to be this way because he teaches men to be someone that they are not, in which the women would fall in love with a “fake” man. This is her way of getting back at Hitch because she was tricked by Hitch’s tactics of wooing women by pleasing them. Sara dated Hitch before she found out he’s a date doctor. She still likes him, however. Therefore, she wants to change him to be true to himself. Relating to the way of taming of the “Taming of the Shrew” and “Hitch”, Petruchio’s way of taming is more direct towards Kate and Sara’s way is more passive and more modern of using a recorder to expose and tame him. However, Petruchio and Sara both took control of their relationships and their ways of taming are both offensive and effective, even through with different genders. In society, the stereotype is that men is always in control of women, but that isn’t true in anyways. Having control over someone in a relationship can be a man or woman, as shown with Sara and Petruchio.
"In token of which duty, if he please,
My hand is ready, may it do him ease."
(Act V, Scene ii, 194-195)
In this quote, Kate made a speech about how women shouldn’t behave carelessly at the banquet celebrating the newlyweds. The husbands all demanded the wife to come out of the room and to see their husbands. None of the wives came out, except for Kate. That’s when she made the speech. This is the ending scene of the play, showing that Kate is tamed and is obedient towards Petruchio. This interprets that Petruchio took control over her and having that said, she’s now a new person, that had sacrifice her original lifestyle. She’s now living up to the men’s expectation, which was never portrayed in the play before until the end.
Kate shows a clear change in her personality from the beginning of the play ‘til the end and Hitch is just about in the same position as Kate.
Hitch 2
In this scene, Hitch realizes that being someone else to woo women isn’t always the right choice to do. Hitch says to Sara “But here I am Sara, falling. And there is only one person that can make me feel like I can fly, is you.” Hitch realizes that being with Sara requires a change in his personality because they are both completely different people. Sara fell in love with the fake identity of Hitch at first. Change and power from Sara took control of Hitch by attempting to publish the recordings of Hitch giving advice to woo women. That made him the person that he is and for Sara to love him back for who he really is. In the “Taming of the Shrew”, Kate plays as a role similar to Hitch because they showed a change in person because of control from their partner in the relationship.
“Taming of the Shrew” and “Hitch” shows a clear understanding of change to become a better person for a relationship to continue. Hitch met someone that he likes for the first time. Sara, however, likes Hitch as well but Hitch doesn’t meet Sara’s expectations to be with someone like him. For the “Taming of the Shrew”, Kate realizes what the expectations is for being a women. Therefore, she changed to be with Petruchio. In today’s society, men and women needs to be compatible with other for the relationship to be successful. If there are two differences in personalities, then one person needs to take control of the other person to change them to be compatible with each other, regardless of gender. Stereotypically, men are the ones who is usually in control. However, the media breaks this boundary of that stereotype, bringing men and women to have equal control in both genders.
Work Cited
Shakespeare, William. The Taming of the Shrew. New York City: A Washington Square Press, 1992. Print.
Tennant, Andy, dir. Hitch. Writ. Bisch Kevin. Foreign Theatrical Distributor, 2005. Film. 6 Dec 2013.
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